Ways to Make Money Sewing
I’ve been sewing since I was a kid and it’s always been my favorite hobby, so as you can imagine, I’ve attempted to monetize my sewing hobby in almost every way you can think of. A few of those attempts were quite successful and others really weren’t, but over many years now, I’ve collected quite a lot of tips for making money sewing in a variety of ways.
I’ll say right up front, I have a favorite way to make money sewing! It’s the fastest and most fun way too, in my experience, and no, it’s not blogging/YouTubing, although that’s what I currently do. So I’m going to start with my favorite and move one from there.
But first, if you’d rather watch the video than read this rather lengthy blog post, you can watch it here or scroll to the end, where I’ll post the YouTube video I made on this topic!
Let’s get to it.
Ways to Make Money Sewing
Let’s talk about my favorite first!
Teach!
Teaching sewing camps to kids out of my home one summer completely changed my life and that’s not an exaggeration. I started because I needed a new laptop and as a one income, military, homeschooling family, we didn’t exactly have the capacity to buy a new Macbook! My sister had told me that she was going to teach some summer sewing camps to make some extra money that summer, so I immediately stole her idea, ha!
I taught 4 weeks of sewing camps right outta my dining room in our military housing unit, had an absolute BLAST doing it, and earned my laptop money and them some. I continued teaching sewing classes for a few more years, over two states, and had over 80 students learn to sew at Pin Cut Sew Studio.
That little business opened up all kinds of businessy thoughts for me and morphed into the online business that I now have. It showed me that I could earn a legitimately helpful income from home and that there are out-of-the-box ways to use a hobby like sewing to add to my family’s income. And it can do that for you too.
Because I know if this sounds like a great idea to you, but that you probably have a ton of questions, I have written an eBook on this topic! I’m so excited to get it into your hands if teaching sewing camps and classes is something that appeals to you.
This book started as a simple blog post, but there was just no way I could answer every question and cover every topic in one article. The book covers everything from finding students, to how to teach them, plus legality issues, figuring out what to charge, equipment needs, finding room in your house for classes, and even a huge list of camp themes and project ideas.
Teaching is for sure the best way to start earning money quickly. You don’t have to make a bunch of items over and over hoping that they’ll sell and risking disappointment if they don’t. You don’t have to have a super high skill level like custom sewing work requires. Anyone can do it, and I hope you feel inspired to try after reading the information in my eBook.
Moving on!
Craft Fairs
Selling handmade items at craft fairs is probably the first thing people think of if they want to earn money with their sewing. Craft fairs are a tough game, but I do have some tips that I feel are essential if you want to be successful.
First, make sure your booth has an aesthetic. Storytelling is essential in business, so your craft fair booth needs to tell a visual story, from the colors of your table cloths and the font on your sign, to the actual items you’re selling.
The things you make need to look cohesive. Selling several baby items in nice modern fabrics and colors that coordinate somehow, for example, is better than selling a hodge-podge of sewn things from kitchen hot pads to dress up clothes in all kinds of mismatched fabrics that you pulled from your ancient musty stash. Niche down and get focused with your branding, then keep it in mind always!
Second, you need to get serious about the cost of these craft fairs compared to the money and time you’re spending to participate. There is nothing more disappointing than feverishly sewing items for months only to either sell very little, or to realize that the effort was not worth the money you made after the booth fees. Do your homework and if you really just want to do it for fun, go for it, but if you want to do it for any serious income, get out your calculator and do some honest estimation on whether or not it will be worth it.
Third, if you’re serious enough to sew for a craft fair booth, you’re serious enough to sell online. If you look at the businesses that have booths at the next farmers market or maker’s fair you attend, you’ll notice that the successful sellers are also selling online. In other words, they’re at the market not to make a ton of sales, but to get awareness out about their brand, maybe giving out samples, and driving customers to their website and social media pages.
Which brings me to …
Etsy and Online Shops
As you know, I sell PDF sewing patterns on Etsy as well as here on my own site, and I’ve had great success there! Along the way, I’ve had to learn a lot about playing the Etsy game, how to get found by the people searching for sewing patterns on Etsy and how to come up first in those search results. This is called SEO and if you want to be an Etsy seller, you need to get familiar with it.
The same principles that go for a booth at a craft fair also apply to selling in an online shop. Hodge-podgey, mismatched, chaotic and unbranded shops rarely go anywhere and you don’t want that to be you! To increase your chances of being successful on Etsy, spend some time learning Etsy SEO, study the aetshetics and branding of successful shops, find a niche that you can get into that isn’t too saturated, and then be patient, learning as you go.
It’s also very important to make sure you’re not selling copyrighted or trademarked items or characters. Lots and lots of Etsy shops get shut down for slapping a Disney character’s face on a t-shirt, as only one example. The key to online selling is to be unique.
I could obviously say a lot more about this topic, but I’m going to move on. Feel free to shoot me an email or leave a comment if you want any more info about Etsy selling!
Next up is my second favorite way to make money sewing!
Custom Sewing Work
If you have some more advanced skills or are really good at a specific niche of sewing, you can earn a great income doing custom work.
My first piece of advice here though, is to know right away that your friends and family are likely not your target market. If you’ve been sewing for any length of time, you already know from experience that the people you know in real life are the most likely to undervalue your time and skills.
But people are out there who do value custom work and are ready and willing to pay! A dance studio owner, for example, understands the cost of a solo costume, they know the price of fabric and trims, and they are happy to pay what you’re worth. And what you’re worth is probably more than you’re thinking. I charge at least $35 per hour when I take on custom sewing jobs, and depending on the work, your price can be higher. So don’t undersell yourself. They are paying, not only for your time, but for your years of experience.
I sewed for an interior designer for awhile and she paid me very well for simple valances, pillows and tablecloths. She paid per finished inch regardless of how simple the piece was.
I’ve also sewn for ballet and theater, and hope to do much more of that in the future, it’s my absolute favorite! It’s my dream to sew for the professional ballet (I’m one step closer now that my daughter has signed on to a studio company in our city!)
A friend of mine learned bridal alterations by working at David’s Bridal, then opened her own formalwear alterations business. She also makes custom cosplay costumes, which is another great and fun niche!
The options here are pretty endless and with the right skills, custom sewing work can not only be lucrative, it is exciting and very creative work, since you’ll rarely sew the same thing twice!
Alterations
I already touched on this above when I mentioned my friend who does formalwear alterations. There are plenty of other alteration opportunities, though. Menswear, military uniforms, and womenswear tailoring come to mind. These are things that certain groups of people are able to willing to pay for, and those people are your target customer! Think creatively about how to learn these skills. There are not only books and video courses, there are also apprenticeship opportunities for things like mens tailoring, and places like David’s Bridal and The Buckle, where they hire and train in the alterations department.
That’s all I have on this topic for now, although I could go on for pages (which I did in my eBook, haha).
As promised, here is this info in video form!
Are there other ways to make money sewing that I haven’t touched on here? I guess the obvious is blogging, haha, and that’s what I currently do, but I don’t consider it a quick or easy way, that’s for sure! If you’d like more info about blogging and YouTubing or content creation as a means to earn an income, let me know and I’ll talk your ear right off about it ;)
Chime in with your thoughts in the comments! I’d love to hear what others have successfully done to earn money with their sewing skills!
Cheers and Happy Sewing,
Nikki
